The gift of doing this conscious connected breathing is so powerful! Each time you do it, you release exactly what you need to in that moment and go on to experience a lighter state of being. Ahhhh…can’t you just feel the peace now?

Intelligent Energy

by Leonard Orr

Energy becomes what it thinks about. This is the most basic truth about Life. If you really understand these words, you are spiritually enlightened. Energy becomes what it thinks about. Energy is the Source of all things. Energy is Infinite Being, the Eternal Spirit; Energy is Substance. Energy is God. But Energy is evenly distributed throughout space and time. It just exists and doesn’t do anything. Energy just is! However, thinking is a quality of Energy and moves Energy. When Energy becomes impregnated by thought, Energy organizes Itself into the form directed by the thought – which may be a physical thing. Energy naturally becomes what it thinks about. Energy directed by thought can materialize into physical things, social realities, or personal feelings and spiritual abilities. There is only one Energy in the universe, but there can be any number of thinking centers of this energy. All thinkers share the same Energy. We are all activity centers in the same Energy. We are thinking centers in the same One Being. We create our own reality, we share the reality which others create, and we become aware of the reality which the Ultimate Thinking Center of Energy has created. We usually call it Nature or God. We are the director of this Energy and so is everyone else, but there is a greater original Creator who has created a very big universe for us to play in. We each create our own reality within this big game and we try to successfully interact with the Big Creator and other people’s creation, but we also have, given to us by our family tradition and conditioning from our parents, a whole package of created things. To the extent that we are recreating our parents’ reality, we have to learn to choose it or un-create it in order to be free. We begin absorbing our parents feelings, thoughts, and manifested realities when we are in the womb. By the time we become enlightened and accept our creative power, we have a whole repertoire of feelings, beliefs, habits, and realities to work with. We can stay stuck with them or we can change them. To heal the emotional mind we received from our family is called spiritual liberation. This seems to take a lifetime for people to successfully do, but we cannot succeed at all if we do not start the process of self healing. And our chances of success are determined by the quality of principles and practices which we use.

Thought

We begin by passing judgement upon each thought as it flows through our consciousness. Selecting a mantra and working with it constantly is the perhaps the most efficiently way to upgrade the quality of our thoughts and feelings. A good mantra should focus our Energy on the realization of our natural divinity. It will liberate us from negative thoughts, feelings, and realities. It will enable us to create what we like and consciously choose. It will make it easier to master our life. We can also upgrade the quality of our thoughts by studying the great Scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, The Devi Bhagavatam, and especially the Shiva Purana which is the most complete picture of human divine potential as well as inspiration and practices to achieve it.

Water

Bathing twice per day cleans the energy body which is our mind in action. Daily bathing is an infinitely valuable spiritually powerful practice. We cannot survive in this world with all kinds of “energies” flying around us every day without the spiritual purification practice of daily bathing. Without bathing, we become more polluted and our body becomes stiffer until we can no longer function in this world and we die to get out of the world. Water purification keeps us alive. It makes Life more pleasurable and gives us greater power and mastery. Drinking good water is also water purification.

Earth

Diet is also important. The lighter food we eat, the more Life Energy we have. The human body and energy system was not designed to process meat according to the oldest Scriptures – The Shiva Purana – as well as modern science. The popular practice of eating meat kills more people than alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs combined. Having a personal exercise system is also important. And having a career that we love and enables us to win the money game is also a part of earth mastery. Receiving body massages and listening to good music are also earth disciplines.

Air

We have to learn the ability to breathe energy as well as air. Intuitive energy breathing, often called Rebirthing, is one of the most important skills of spiritual liberation.

Fire

Fire purification is also very important. Water, Earth, Air, and Fire are the eternal qualities of this Infinite Energy. Learning the spiritual power of fire and using it on a daily basis is a healing practice that is essential to human health and aliveness. Fire purification keeps us alive. Fire can clean our energy body and help us maintain our physical body in health and joy. Fire can burn pain, tension, and disease out of the body. Exposure to an open flame is as important to human health as good food, exercise, energy breathing, daily bathing, and wholesome thoughts. Fire is magical and powerful. Fire is a physical quality of God that can clean us and heal us spiritually and physically.

Love

Love is also essential. Love is the subjective experience of Infinite Energy. To the extent that we feel love, we are tuned into our Divine Energy. Intelligent Energy creates with mind, earth, air, water, fire, and love. The basic idea of spiritual purification is to clean and balance our energy body often enough to keep it in joy and good working order so we can enjoy Life – so that we can embody and express this Infinite Energy in the world. Energy become what it thinks about. To the extent that we do daily spiritual practices with mind, water, earth, air, fire, and love, we move steadily on the path of spiritual liberation, personal freedom and power, and aliveness. To the extent that we neglect these fundamental qualities of our divine nature, we increase our emotional mud and lose our health and aliveness, our peace and joy of living. Without spiritual purification practices, our life urge becomes weaker, more dense, filled with darkness, and living becomes more difficult. Our body gets stiffer and stiffer. Religions that are not focused upon spiritual purification practices produce dead people. Without spiritual purification, people become sick and stiff like zombies. These dead zombies spread emotional energy pollution, sickness, and death to everyone they contact. Understanding these ideas is basic to living as Intelligent Energy. Energy is love and bliss and power. This Intelligent Energy has thought itself into earth, air, water, and fire. The Life of the universe as well as the human body is the intelligent and loving interplay between earth, air, water, and fire. From the standpoint of human existence, earth, air, water, and fire are the eternal qualities of God. Earth, air, water, and fire have to exist before you an have a human body as we know it. Therefore earth, air, water, and fire precede human beings. To have a conscious relationship to earth, air, water, and fire through simple daily spiritual practices with them is basic to realizing our potential as Intelligent Energy. I give you these fundamental thoughts out of love. For more information on these ideas, check out my books and tapes. I also give personal consultations over the phone as well as lectures, or trainings. You are invited to contact me at the following address or phone number:

To go deeper into the subject of this article, here is a list of recommended titles:

Breaking the Death Habit – by Leonard Orr

Breath Awareness – by Leonard Orr

Fire – by Leonard Orr

The Healing Manual – by Leonard Orr

Adventures in Spiritual Mastery (CD) – by Leonard Orr

Personal Energy Management – by Leonard Orr

The Science of Personal Aliveness (tape) – by Leonard Orr

Ultimate Healers (tape) – by Leonard Orr

The Psychology & Enlightenment of Leonard Orr (tape) – by Leonard Orr

Ye are Gods – by Analee Skarin

Leonard Orr’s books & tapes as well as a selection of other very valuable materials are available for sale on this web site. Information about the Leonard Orr Training Center is available on this web site.

I found a couple of great websites and some powerful info that I’d like to share with you. The first is www.babystepsonline.net, which is a company offering Intuitive Birthing classes. Their links/resources page is great! I plan to contact these powerful women and work with them to share rebirthing with their clients.

The second site is www.terrylarimore.com, who is an LMSW (Licensed Master Social Worker) among other certifications. Her collection of readings and writings is wonderful. I highly recommend the article “Babies Are Conscious”, by Dr. David Chamberlain.

The last piece I wish to share with you is some information about water birthing. I began my education about water delivery in 2006, when I first attended an LRT, Loving Relationship Training. Not a lot ws discussed about it at that point, but I remember a seed was planted. While training to become a Certified Breathworker/Rebirther, we talked extensively about the subject and saw footage of a live water birth and a live hospital birth. The difference in the reactions of the baby were incredible! In the water birth, the baby was so calm and peaceful versus the hospital delivery in which the baby was tense and anxious. I knew then that I wanted to share this information with other medical professionals. I also knew that I would deliver this way if I ever were pregnant (the training was in January and I conceived in February).

Today, I found a wonderful waterbirthing site for your review. Should you want to investigate the benefits of this form of delivery or know of someone who would benefit from this information, this is a great site to go to: http://www.waterbirth.org/

Here are some of the FAQ’s:

Why is water birth not available in more hospitals?

Waterbirth International works diligently with couples who want to use warm water during their births in a hospitals. We have been very successfully with obtaining approvals for our portable pools in many hospitals in the last ten years. Hospitals are more cooperative today than ever before as doctors and midwives begin to see the benefits of allowing women to make their own choices.

Waterbirth profoundly demonstrates that a woman is empowered by “giving birth,” not “being delivered”. Many health care providers are seeing women take charge of their birth experiences and welcome this attitude and do what they can to facilitate a gentle birth. But others are still “locked into” the medical technological model of birth and have a harder time being convinced of the efficacy and safety of waterbirth. As couples become more informed of their options, they are assuming more responsibility for their own birth experience. If you would like one of Waterbirth International’s midwife or physician consultants to work with your doctor or hospital, simply contact us. We’ll call and discuss the approaches to take and the steps that are necessary to change policy.

What prevents baby from breathing under water?There are four main factors that prevent the baby from inhaling water at the time of birth:

1.Prostaglandin E2 levels from the placenta which cause a slowing down or stopping of the fetal breathing movements. When the baby is born and the Prostaglandin level is still high, the baby’s muscles for breathing simply don’t work, thus engaging the first inhibitory response.

2.Babies are born experiencing mild hypoxia or lack of oxygen. Hypoxia causes apnea and swallowing, not breathing or gasping.

3.Water is a hypotonic solution and lung fluids present in the fetus are hypertonic. So, even if water were to travel in past the larynx, they could not pass into the lungs based on the fact that hypertonic solutions are denser and prevent hypotonic solutions from merging or coming into their presence.

4.The last important inhibitory factor is the Dive Reflex and revolves around the larynx. The larynx is covered all over with chemoreceptors or taste buds. The larynx has five times as many as taste buds as the whole surface of the tongue. So, when a solution hits the back of the throat, passing the larynx, the taste buds interprets what substance it is and the glottis automatically closes and the solution is then swallowed, not inhaled.

What is the temperature of the water?Water should be monitored at a temperature that is comfortable for the mother, usually between 95-100 degrees Fahrenheit. Water temperature should not exceed 101 degrees Fahrenheit as it could lead to an increase in the mother’s body temperature which could cause the baby’s heart rate to increase. It is a good idea to have plenty of water to drink and cold cloths for the mother’s face and neck. A cool facial mist from a spray bottle is a welcome relief for some mothers as well.

How much does a waterbirth cost?If you rent a portable poolfor either home or hospital birth, it usually costs about $375, which includes the rental fee, shipping both ways, and all the extras that you might need. Some insurance companies do reimburse for the expense of the pool rental. If the hospital has permanent birth pool equipment, there is not really even any need to let your insurance company know that you have had a waterbirth. Just in case they may object to the process, it is always safe to inform the insurance company that the baby was born vaginally. It really doesn’t matter if the baby was born in the bath or on the bed – it is still a vaginal birth.

Can I have a water birth at my local hospital?Waterbirth International diligently works with families who want to have a water birth in a hospital environment. Hospitals are more cooperative today than ever before as more and more women have made their choices heard. Many people start the process by inquiring if they can bring in a portable pool kit for labor. There are a series of steps that need to take place in order to assist hospitals and providers in adopting protocols for water labor and birth and the use of a portable pool. Our Gentle Birth Pool Kits have been used in hundreds of facilities, including several military hospitals (no easy task!).

Our Executive Director, Barbara Harper, is available to work with each family to assess how much is needed to get policies changed or established. Our success rate with hospitals and providers is about 95%. Call to discuss this aspect of our work if you want to help your local hospital institute a water birth policy. We ask that you become a memberof Waterbirth International or provide a donation in order to help us with the cost of effecting these changes.

How long is baby in the water after the birth?Here in the US, practitioners usually bring the baby out of the water within the first ten seconds after birth. There is no physiological reason to leave the baby under the water for any length of time. There are several water birth videos that depict leaving the baby under the water for several moments after birth and the babies are just fine.

Physiologically, the placenta is supporting the baby with oxygen during this time though it can never be predicted when the placenta will begin to separate causing the flow of oxygen to baby to stop. The umbilical cord pulsating is not a guarantee that the baby is receiving enough oxygen. The safe approach is to remove the baby, without hurrying, and gently place him into his mother’s arms.

When should I get into the water?A woman should be encouraged to use the labor pool whenever she wants. However, if a mother chooses to get into the water in early labor, before her contractions are strong and close together, the water may relax her enough to slow or stop labor altogether. That is why some practitioners limit the use of the pool until labor patterns are established and the cervix is dilated to at least 5 centimeters.

There is some physiological data that supports this rule, but each and every situation must be evaluated on its own.

Some mothers find a bath in early labor useful for its calming effect and to determine if labor has actually started. If contractions are strong and regular, no matter how dilated the cervix is, a bath might be in order to help the mother to relax enough to facilitate dilation.

Therefore, it has been suggested that the bath be used in a “trial of water” for at least one hour and allow the mother to judge its effectiveness. Midwives report that some women can go from 1 cm to complete dilation within the first hour or two of immersion. The first hour of relaxation in the pool is usually the best and can often help a woman achieve complete dilation quickly.

I am so honored and grateful be able to make this decision for myself and my baby. It’s exciting to think about how easy and gentle the experience can and will be. Now, because I am aware that thought is creative and that the baby is a divine child of God, he/she may have the desire to have another kind of experience for his/her own life lessons. I am respectful of what is meant to happen as part of the Divine plan for my life and for the baby’s life.

Over a period of twelve years, between 1962 and 1974, Leonard Orr discovered and developed the “spiritual power of the human breathing ability”.In ’74, he perfected the training of Breathworkers, also called Rebirthers or Breathing Guides.Today, over 10 million people have experienced the power of breathwork, without a huge amount of advertising or marketing, but through the simple art of sharing testimonials.

Leonard said about breathwork that it’s, “perhaps the most valuable gift you can give yourself for emotional and physical health.”Rebirthing breathing is the ability to breathe energy as well as air.It supplies us with spiritual energy and power that enables us to move and be healthy.

Most adults think they know how to breathe although they rarely think about it.However, almost none of them truly know until they’ve had 10 sessions with a trained Breathworker.

Breathing sessions are for anyone who ever has tension, stress or pain.Rebirthing enables us to relax, experience peace, tranquility and freedom from pain.We can breathe ourselves out of anger, depression, and troublesome feelings into peace, clear and pure Life energy.

The philosophy of breathwork includes the concept that thought is creative and that we are conscious from the moment of conception.As we begin to experience life in the pre-verbal form, we collect ideas about ourselves, our parents, authority figures, our siblings and even God.These collected thoughts are stored in our subconscious mind and form the basis for our present and future external reality.

Because we are unable to comprehend what is happening around us or ask for clarity about it, we make decisions such as, “I am unwanted”, “Men hurt me”, “Life is hard”.We then, through the Law of Projection, do one to three things with these thoughts:

*We act them out.

*We project them onto people, places, or things.

*We overcompensate for them.

These behaviors in turn can make one’s life less than satisfactory and can manifest in difficulty with success, wealth, relationships and family harmony.

The result of working with a Breathworker is that you uncover the unconscious thoughts that may have been sabotaging your life and are able to change your thinking to produce more desirable results.You begin to experience more peace and balance in your life, in your health, your family and in your career.

The process begins with an initial discovery session to determine the circumstances present at your birth, the elements of your life which are not working for you now and your goals for your own change.

Subsequent sessions begin with discussion of how your life is progressing and how the suggested homework is going.Homework is typically the request that you write one or more affirmations about 15 times daily to turn around a particular thought.These are powerful accelerators!After the discussion, you breathe for one hour in a connected breath pattern, through your mouth while in a comfortable position.

The characteristics of the rebirthing breathing technique are different than any other breathing technique.You are guided to breath into your upper chest, into your heart, like you did when you were a baby.This naturally will liberate thoughts and feelings from your childhood and beyond.Your trained Breathworker will gently assist you in easily moving through these as they arise.Your pace will be guided so that your cells become completely oxygenated, releasing any stored toxins.Breathwork will bring a greater sense of vitality to your entire body!

Following the breathing session, your Breathworker helps you to integrate your thoughts and feelings and gives any suggestions for the next session.Weekly sessions are recommended in the beginning.It is also suggested that 10 sessions be attended with a male Breathworker and 10 with a female Breathworker, in order to address your paternal and, respectively, your maternal patterns which may be present.